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This illustration of an armillary sphere is from a treatise on astronomy, Sefer mareh ha-ofanim (The Appearance of the Heavenly Beings), by Solomon ben Abraham Avigdor. The treatise was mostly a…
In the back of a manuscript collection of astronomical texts, which includes one of Abraham Ibn Ezra’s works on the use of the astrolabe (a tool for astronomical calculations), is a set of crude but…
The kinnor, called in a foreign tongue arpa (harp), is a wooden instrument made in the likeness of a wide-open entrance without their being doors on it, and its upper threshold is broad and its lower…
I have always regretted one thing. When I ponder the Hebrew literature of all periods I ask myself: Why is it that our forefathers, who spent so much time on the study of matters of religion and law…
The common names of plants used by different nations and languages were not coined by chance alone. If we examine the origin of these names, we find they are based on ancient legend and that the…
Kinneret, 12 Nissan, 5674 [8 April 1914]
There was a time when the writing of a letter, like the receiving of a letter, was in itself like a holiday for me. I lived in letters—as I told you once and…
In my opinion, one cannot understand the development of the Science of Judaism except by taking note of the profound contradictions or, if you will, the unique dialectical tensions present within it…
This illustration of the (Aristotelian) cosmos appears in an eighteenth-century manuscript of Neḥmad ve-na‘im (Nice and Pleasant), David Ganz’s posthumously published book on astronomy.
The study program of a Torah scholar should follow roughly this order: the Bible, as mentioned above, and the entirety of the Mishnah, as stated above. He should even complete the Orders of the…
There are a few Torah scholars who are rich in knowledge and whose mental grasp is abundant, while others do not possess an intellectual grasp akin to theirs, for everyone possesses mental grasp in…